End My Pain
by Annie-chan
Summary: An extended version of Seymour's death. Sucky summary, yeah, but there's not much more to tell.


**Author's Notes:**  Well, here's my first _Final Fantasy X_ fanfic.  I haven't quite beaten the game—all I have left is the Final Aeon—but I've played far enough to be able to write this without worrying about getting something wrong.  Seymour's death was quite upsetting for me, because he was my favorite character in the game.  He was Sephiroth all over again.  His death scene was also rather short, which of course got my Muse chattering.  What if it wasn't so quick?  What if he had refused to let Yuna send him for a little while longer?  I know I've written something along the same lines for Sephiroth, but oh well.  I think it can apply to Seymour just as easily.  If you don't like that, don't read.  XP

Another thing:  How I illustrate Seymour's feelings for Yuna in this fic isn't really my opinion on the matter.  I have no set opinion, actually, preferring to just speculate and acknowledge that it could be either way.  That's how I am with lots of things that are left up to the imagination.  Anyway, if you don't agree with how Seymour feels for Yuna in this fic, then I'd rather you didn't "correct" me in any feedback you give, regardless of any reasons you may have, valid or invalid.  I respect the opinions of others, but I don't respect people who insist that they are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong.

_Final Fantasy X_ and the characters therein belong to Square and any other copyright holders, not me.

End My Pain By Annie-chan 

Yuna stood with her feet planted firmly, holding her staff at the ready, on the verge of summoning.  She was about to summon Anima, as Seymour's mother had given it to her to aid in defeating her son, but she never got the chance.  The monstrosity Seymour's body had warped into shuddered and faltered, beginning to list to the side where it hovered above them.  It shook and flashed, a cry of defeat echoing around them.

Seymour Omnis had fallen.

He was as he was before, small and puny compared to the size he had been in his transformed state.  He was struggling to stay on his feet, and he lost his fight after only a few seconds, falling to his knees on the hard ground.  He was in a massive amount of pain.  It was a wonder he hadn't collapsed completely.

"No…" Yuna heard him groan, disbelieving of his defeat.

"Now, Yuna!" Wakka urged from behind her.  "Send him!"

"Yes," she nodded, stepping toward Seymour.  It had taken a long time, but she was finally able to send him to the Farplane, where the dead like him belonged.  Taking a deep breath, as she always did before a sending, she began the now familiar motions.

"NO!" Seymour cried hoarsely, digging down into his last reserve of strength and lunging toward Yuna.  His clawed hands seized her staff, halting the dance.

"YUNA!" Tidus shouted in alarm, springing toward them.  Rather, he _tried_ to spring toward them.  Auron's dark and imposing form was blocking the way.  "Auron!  Let me pass!"

"She'll be all right," the swordsman assured him.  "Don't worry.  He is too weak to harm her, even if he tried.  The most he could do is give her a few scratches."

Tidus gritted his teeth in anger, but didn't try to go any nearer.

"Seymour, why do you still resist?" Yuna asked, her voice soft and sad.  She still had her staff, as he had merely grabbed it to stop it, not to take it away.  "What more can you do?  You cannot merge with Sin, and you should have passed on a long time ago.  What meaning is there to this?"

"I know…" he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.  "…I know…you have defeated me…but…"  He broke off, his strength finally giving completely out, and he fell to his knees again.  Yuna quickly dropped to her knees as well, trying to hold him up, but she was unable to, the weight of his substantially larger frame too much for her to handle.  He hit the ground hard on his side.

"Seymour!" Yuna squeaked.  Wanting to ease his suffering a little, she maneuvered him as best she could, so he was half lying against her, her arms around his shoulders and his head against her shoulder.  "Please, let go, Seymour.  You'll only hurt more the longer you linger."

"But…" he breathed, "…but…I wanted to tell you one last thing…before I go…"

"What is it?" she asked, looking into his pale face.

He coughed, and a thin stream of blood worked its way down his chin from the corner of his mouth.  "It is…" another cough, "…that I love you, Yuna."

Nearby, Tidus, who had overheard, felt blood rage rise up within him, yet he managed to restrain himself from doing or saying anything.

"You…love me," Yuna repeated slowly, stunned.  It was the last thing she expected him to say.  Since their first fight in Macalania Temple, he had treated her coldly, unlike the kindhearted man he had played himself to be before.  It was like he thought that, since she had agreed to marry him, he had no need to play the charade any longer.

"I know," he nodded weakly, guessing her thoughts.  "I-I'm sorry…!  I'm sorry!  I didn't want you to know!"  He shivered suddenly, as if a shut down process had began inside him.  He was speaking less haltingly, knowing his time was running out before he "died" a fourth and final time, though his voice was weaker.  He knew that he wouldn't have the strength to stay "alive" again, even if Yuna didn't send him.  "I had planned to find a summoner woman to marry, for the reasons I gave you in Bevelle.  I had found out how Sin was repeatedly reborn, and I wanted to become the Final Aeon myself so I could become the next Sin and have the chance to end Spira's cycle of death.  I had a whole pack from which to choose one to ask, under the ruse of wishing to unite our two cultures, but I wanted to find the one with the most promise, the most chance to succeed in defeating Sin.  When I first saw you at Luca Harbor, I was…I was captivated.  You were the most beautiful out of all the women in the crowd at the dock."

Yuna blushed.  No matter whom it came from, she always got embarrassed when someone told her she was pretty.

Seymour swallowed the blood that was gathering in his mouth and continued, almost too quiet to hear, even in the silence of the Garden of Pain.  "I heard that you were High Summoner Braska's daughter, and I grew intrigued.  Not only had you caught my fancy, but you also had great potential.  Your father defeated Sin, so there was a good chance you would do the same.  I followed you after that, always making sure I was in the same area as you were, so I could watch you, get to know you more."  He coughed hard, his breath rattling wetly in his chest.  "Every time we met, I was drawn closer and closer to you.  I wanted to be with you always, yet I couldn't.  I had my duties as a maester to attend to.  When I got to Guadosalam and heard that you were just about to arrive in the city, I finally acknowledged what I felt for you.  I knew that I loved you.  I _knew_ I wanted to marry you, and now was as good a time as ever to ask you."  A ghost of a smile played on his lips.  "So, I did."

"But, why?!" Yuna suddenly burst out.  "Why didn't you tell me this before?  Why did you act just the opposite?  You were so kind to my guardians and me before you asked me, yet after I consented, you started treating me like a _thing_!  It was as if you saw me as just some object for you to _own_!  You say you love me, so _why_ did you act like you did?!"  She didn't know whether to be angry or sad.

"I didn't want you to leave me!" he whimpered, his voice continuing to fail.

"What…?" she blinked.

"I didn't…I-I didn't want you to leave me…!" he said again.  He coughed more, and the blood trickled from his mouth a little faster.  "My mother…I loved her so much.  She was the only one I trusted, the only one who trusted me.  Everyone else saw me as some kind of freak for being a half-breed.  Even my own father held me at a distance.  I told Mother I loved her every day, and she left me!  Even as I begged her not to go, she left me!  I-I didn't want that to happen again!"  Tears, probably the first he had shed in many years, slipped down his cheeks.

He was starting to look translucent around the edges.  He was beginning to fade.

"Seymour…" Yuna said softly.  "Please, let me end your pain."

"End my pain…" he repeated, his voice now no more than a reedy whisper.  Weak, pain-wracked, and weeping, he relaxed, as if finally accepting that she needed to send him to the Farplane.

Seeing him like that made her want to give him one last thing, something to let him know that she didn't hate him, but pitied him and his emotional wreckage.  Brushing his hair aside, she leaned down and kissed him.

Tidus drove the end of his sword into the stone floor beneath his feet and turned away, biting back a scream of fury.  His teeth and hands were clenched, and he was shaking.

Seymour barely responded, too drained to do anything at all.

Yuna pulled away and looked down silently upon his face, still as death.

Finally, his body dissolved into bright streaks of light, his soul letting go at last of the life he had been so reluctant to abandon.  Yuna, in fact everyone there, thought they "heard" a silent scream of joy and relief, as if Seymour's soul hadn't wanted to keep on living like his mind had insisted.

Yuna stood and took up her staff again.  The pyreflies Seymour had become swirled closely around her, and she thought she felt an eagerness, a need for him to be sent on his way coming from them.  They flitted around her so closely, that she looked to the others like she was dissolving herself.  The young maester was holding her one last time before he went.

Though she smiled, a single tear escaped each eye, and she began the dance again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The City of Dying Dreams.

The Tower of the Dead loomed in the distance.  The Final Aeon was only a little bit farther down the road, and everyone was resting up for the fight.  They were camped out at the crossroads before the tower, and a small fire was burning.  Yuna was sitting a little apart from everyone else, and she hadn't said a word since they stopped.  Tidus was also silent, though he was closer to the others.  Though, one would notice that he was across the group from Yuna and refused to look at her.

Finally, he raised his eyes and glanced at her.  She seem absorbed in her thoughts, and though her face was serene, her eyes were a mixture of sorrow and relief.  Tidus watched her for several minutes, and he found that he had stood and was now walking toward her.  He hadn't realized he had moved.  He sat down next to her, close yet not touching.  Neither said anything for a while.

"Why?" Tidus finally asked.

"Why what?" Yuna asked in return.

"Why didn't you just send him?" Tidus explained.  "Why did you let him linger on like that?  Why did you—"  He swallowed, feeling a sharp pain of resentment.  "Why did you kiss him?"

Yuna paused, then answered.  "I let him linger on, because he deserved the chance to explain himself.  He was willing to spill his heart to me, Tidus, and I would have been cruel not to allow him.  He had been holding his pain in for so long."  She paused again, then looked at the young man.  "I kissed him to let him know that I understood, that I didn't hate him.  He loved me, and I wanted to give him something he desired as a sort of a peace offering.  I didn't do it out of love, but pity."

"Really?" Tidus asked, not meeting her eyes.

"Yes," she nodded.  Scooting closer, she leaned against him.  "I love you, Tidus."

"Yeah," Tidus said softly, putting his arms around her.  "I love you, too…Yuna."

"We see this through to the end?" she looked up at his face.

"Yeah," he said again, his old grin stretching his lips.  "To the end."

She slipped her small hand into his, and they let the world around them disappear for the moment, content in each other's embrace.  They had promised to stick together for as long as the conflict lasted, and they'd both be damned if they backed out now.

Down the road, the Final Aeon waited.

Owari 

**Author's Notes:**  Well, there you go, my own version of Seymour's death.  I always have this urge to write fics that give more "closure" to certain subjects, especially the fates of my favorite characters.  I hope no one minds.  I like writing them, so I hope people like reading them.  I hear that the end of the game is sad—please, no spoilers, because I want to see it for myself—so I'll probably have to write a fic to "fix" that, too.  ^_^;;  Oh, well.  That's what fanfiction is for.  Yay for fanfiction!  Anyway, did you all like this?  Let me know in a review or an email to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!


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